| Administrative History | The Education (Scotland) Act 1872 created school boards in Scotland with a statutory duty to provide education for all children between the ages of 5 and 13. The boards had an elected membership made up of owners and occupiers of property of the value of £4 or over. They were responsible for the building and maintenance of schools, staffing and attendance of pupils. They were overseen by the Scotch (later Scottish) Education Department, whose focus was on whether enough spaces were being provided to ensure the required attendance, and did the syllabus taught meet their requirements. This led the school board to focus on the constructing and expansion of schools and monitoring pupil's attendance.
Though education was compulsory, pupils were not obliged to attend public schools run by the School Board, but the School Board did have to ensure there were enough spaces for all 5-13 year olds. Under the 1872 Act school boards could lease or buy private schools; establish infant schools for the under 7s and evening classes for the over 13s; accept transfer of denominational or subscription schools (largely aimed at Free and UP Church Schools); and took over the management of burgh schools "higher class public schools". As such, only the two 'Town Schools', Little Belmont Street School and the Grammar School, automatically transferred to the ASB in 1873. The School Board conducted an educational census and quickly established that five additional schools would be needed in poorly-served areas of the City. By 1876 the School Board had assumed control of 9 existing schools, notably those administered by the Church of Scotland and the Free Church of Scotland, and had commenced construction of 5 new schools: Commerce Street, Skene Street, Causewayend, Ferryhill and Middle Schools.
Aberdeen School Board (ASB) elected Rev. W.R. Pirie as its first chair. Thomas Hector was appointed Joint Clerk and Treasurer, serving from 1872 until his death in 1918, and Mr George Gill School Attendance Officer. The School Board's offices were at 12 King Street, moving to Union Terrace in 1898. years In the following decades, further schools were bought, constructed or transferred to the Board, many as a result of the expanding City boundaries. By 1900 the number of elementary schools under the control of the Board had risen to 26; on its replacement by the Aberdeen Education Authority in 1919 the number had risen again to 30.
School Boards were abolished by the Education (Scotland) Act 1918. Oversight of Aberdeen's schools was taken over by the new Aberdeen Education Authority (AEA) from April 1919. 13 Schools maintained by the Scottish Episcopal Church and by the Roman Catholic Church were placed under the control of the Education Authority in 1919 and 1920 respectively, leaving only a handful of schools in the City outwith local authority control. Since then a large number of new local authority schools have been opened to meet the demand for school places in suburban housing schemes.
In April/May 1930, after further local government and education reform, the Aberdeen Town Council Education Committee (ATCEC) took over responsibility for education in the city. In 1975 at the founding of the Grampian Regional Council, the GRC's Education Committee took over responsibility for education for the whole region. Records of this organisation, and the individual schools within the Grampian Region and its predecessor authorities, are catalogued under the reference ED.
Sources: "Aberdeen, 1800-2000: A New History"; "Aberdeen and its first School Board 1872-1876"
The system of educational provision by local authorities dates back to the 1872 Education (Scotland) Act. This Act established school boards in each parish and burgh in Scotland, with powers to erect schools, to take over and run existing schools, and to levy school fees and a local school rate to fund their activities. On its election in 1873, Aberdeen School Board's principal task was the establishment of a network of elementary schools to meet the new statutory requirement to educate all children between the ages of 5 and 13 years.
By 1876 the School Board had assumed control of 9 existing schools, notably those administered by the Church of Scotland and the Free Church of Scotland, and had commenced construction of 5 new schools in poorly-served areas of the City. In the following decades, further schools were bought, constructed or transferred to the Board, many as a result of the expanding City boundaries. By 1900 the number of elementary schools under the control of the Board had risen to 26; on its replacement by the Aberdeen Education Authority in 1919 the number had risen again to 30. Schools maintained by the Scottish Episcopal Church and by the Roman Catholic Church were placed under the control of the Education Authority in 1919 and 1920 respectively, leaving only a handful of schools in the City outwith local authority control. Since then a large number of new local authority schools have been opened to meet the demand for school places in suburban housing schemes.
The schools opened by Aberdeen School Board from 1873 aimed to provide an elementary education in reading, writing, arithmetic and religious instruction. Though education was compulsory, pupils were not obliged to attend public schools run by the School Board. Despite this, a far greater percentage of children attended Board schools in Aberdeen than in other Scottish cities; and after the School Board abolished fees in 1890 attendance at public schools became the norm. Until 1901 the requirement for pupils to attend school until the age of 13 years was relaxed for pupils over the age of 10, if they had reached the approved standard in the three Rs, and had secured employment. As a result, relatively few stayed on until they reached their thirteenth birthday.
Pupils who did remain at school were fed a diet of subject-based topics; from 1894 these classes were taught in the newly-established Central School. There was little overall purpose to these classes, though the introduction of a Merit Certificate for successful completion of the elementary course (comprising the three Rs, two class subjects and one specific subject) did provide a goal for ex-standard pupils. Certainly the expansion of the elementary curriculum in no way approximated to the distinct system of secondary education provided by the School Board elsewhere in the City. The School Board provided secondary education at the Grammar School and the Girls' High School. The Grammar School was an ancient foundation, established and managed by the Town Council, which provided fee-paying male pupils with the necessary classical education for entry to university. Under the 1872 Education (Scotland) Act the Grammar School was transferred to the management of the School Board, but its role in providing higher education was unchanged. Though the School Board opened a preparatory department in the Grammar School in 1876, the School did not form part of the network of elementary schools in the City. Rather it provided for parents who wished their children to be educated beyond the elementary level.
The School Board established an equivalent school for girls in 1874, which later became known as the High School for Girls. From the 1880s this school too offered advanced courses leading to the Scottish Education Department Higher Leaving Certificate, which served as the standard for admission to Scottish universities. Both schools catered for pupils from the ages of 5 to 18 years, and remained fee-paying after the abolition of fees in other Board schools. Free places and bursaries were available through competition "to assist the most ingenious and studious of the children of poor parents ... in the prosecution of their studies in the higher schools". In effect, though, the City's senior secondary schools (the Grammar School, the Girls' High School and the private secondary schools, including Robert Gordon's College) remained as a parallel, but largely separate, system from the elementary (later primary and junior secondary) schools until the introduction of comprehensive education in 1970.
Further development of the system of elementary education was stimulated by the rise in the age of compulsory school education to 14 years in 1901. Pupils were staying longer in education and required a more directed programme beyond the standard elementary classes in the three Rs. As a result "supplementary courses" with an emphasis on practical and vocational subjectes were introduced in 1903 for pupils aged 12 to 14 years. The supplementary courses were taught in the elementary schools, rather than in the Central School, but there was no automatic progression to these courses from the elementary classes: they were taught only to pupils who passed a qualifying examination set by the Scottish Education Department.
At the same time the choice of education beyond the elementary classes was widened with the re-opening of the Central School. Released from the need to provide accommodation for ex- standard classes, the Central School was designated a Higher Grade school in 1904. Places at the school were available to pupils who had completed their elementary education, and who had passed the school entrance examination. The three-year course in literary, commercial and special subjects was designed "for pupils who will enter the lower ranks of industry and commerce at the age of about fifteen or sixteen and for whom a Secondary School course at a later leaving age would be unsuitable." The course led to the award of the Day School (Higher) Certificate.
The Central School also provided classes for pupil teachers working towards the Higher Leaving Certificate. Pupils in the Intermediate Certificate class could, on achieving the qualification, progress to classes working towards the Higher Leaving Certificate. Indeed the Intermediate Certificate rapidly became used as a half-way stage for the Higher Leaving Certificate. As a result the Central School became a de facto secondary school preparing pupils for university entrance. Recognition of its status was signalled with the change of name to the Central Secondary School in 1921. The structure of educational provision in Aberdeen was changed in the early 1920s. The provision of supplementary courses at elementary schools was abolished. Instead, Aberdeen Education Authority centralised the provision of supplementary classes into schools designated as Intermediate Centres (re-named Junior Secondary Schools in 1939 and Secondary Schools in 1954).
Each intermediate school was fed by a number of primary schools. Promotion from a primary school to an intermediate school was determined by the result of the Control Examination (a qualifying test set by Aberdeen Education Authority) taken by pupils when aged about 12 years. The curriculum at intermediate schools remained largely the same as supplementary courses taught in elementary schools: two-year technical courses with a practical bias. Unlike the secondary school courses, the supplementary courses were not tested in a national examination: they led to the award of the Day School Certificate (Lower), based on an attainment test laid down by Aberdeen Education Authority (later Aberdeen Town Council Education Committee).
The school leaving age was raised again in 1947 to 15 years, giving all pupils the opportunity of three years education beyond the elementary - or primary - level. It had become accepted that all pupils had a right to some sort of secondary education, though the distinction between senior secondary schools and junior secondary schools remained in place. The qualifying examination, later known as the transfer examination, was retained but the result of the examination was used to determine the nature of secondary education, rather than whether the pupil would progress beyond the elementary level. Thus the examination selected those pupils destined for a five-year secondary education at the Central School from the majority of pupils who would follow a more practical or vocational three-year education at a junior secondary school.
The transfer examination was also used to allocate pupils to the free places at the Grammar School and the Girls' High School, and to the bursary places at Robert Gordon's College. The educational system was revised in 1961 with the introduction of a national examination structure for all types of secondary schools. Pupils were taught courses leading to national examinations at ordinary (or "O") grade at fourth year, at higher grade at fifth year and at advanced grade at sixth year. This uniform system of teaching and testing attainment across both junior and senior secondary schools rendered the qualifying examination divisive, as it ensured the superior resources at the senior secondary schools were reserved for those most intellectually able or financially endowed. As a result, in 1965 the Government ordered education authorities to frame schemes for comprehensive education in their areas.
Aberdeen Town Council Education Committee resolved in 1966 to pursue a one-tier comprehensive system. This scheme envisaged re-organising the schools in the City to provide one secondary school in each area, drawing pupils from a number of feeder primary schools. Under the scheme, all pupils would transfer to a secondary school aged 11 or 12 years, without any selection based on levels of attainment. The scheme of re-organisation included abolition of the authority's single-sex fee-paying secondary schools - the Grammar School and the Girls' High School. Comprehensive secondary schools opened in the City in August 1970, though the system was phased in over a number of years; in particular, the single-sex former Grammar and Girls' High Schools went co-educational only in 1973.
As the system did not require any selection of pupils, the transfer examination was abolished in 1970. The length of secondary education was further extended by the rise in school leaving age to 16 years in 1972. |